Introduction to E-sports

Electronic sports or E-sports as it is more commonly known as, refers to the competitive play of video games. It has evolved video games into a spectator sport whereby thousands of people gather together at gaming conventions to witness the finest players from around the globe fighting it out to be proclaimed the world’s best in competitive gaming.

The Beginning of E-sports

The beginnings of video gaming could be traced back from the 1950s where the first interactive game was chess. Following in its footsteps were Nim (a math-heavy parlour game) and OXO (aka Tic-Tac-Toe) and although these games were fun and functional, their popularity were restricted as they could only be found within universities, laboratories and selected technical work spaces as they were viewed largely as tools of research and for educational purposes. The passing of time and evolution of technology brought about the birth of Pong, one of the most influential and well known titles in the history of video games.

Pong was the beginning of a new era and went on to spawn an industry. It inspired and brought about the creation of other games which later evolved into popular titles such as Pac-man, Donkey Kong and Mario. Later, experiments within computer gaming led to the development and introduction of the First Person Shooter genre, fighting games and then other genres such as Real Time Strategy (RTS) and MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online). As the video games industry evolved, so did their popularity and the competition within the industry. It spawned professional players, tournaments and later large scale gaming conventions and events to meet the demands of a growing interest in the video games industry.

Common genres associated with E-sports are first-person shooters (FPS) and real-time strategy (RTS) such as Counter-strike and Starcraft. Others include racing, fighting games for arcade and massively-multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPG). Whichever genre it may be, e-sports is all about the competition and dazzling displays of skills by professional players that keeps spectators on the edge of their seats and coming back for more.

In large scale E-sports conventions such as Major League Gaming (MLG), World Cyber Games (WCG), Dreamhack and Evo Championship Series, thousands of spectators will come together to watch onsite while hundreds of thousands more will stream into live matches online.

First Global Tournaments

The first global tournaments came about in 1997 with a video game league known as the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL). The scale of this event and attendance has since grown and brought rise to other events such as World Cyber Games (WCG) and Major League Gaming (MLG). In Korea, electronic sports is recognized as an official sport that is supported by the Korean government and tournament matches are broadcast live on national television. The professional players are well known all over the world and revered as celebrity idols within their own country. The gaming events these players participate in can command up to thousands and even millions in sponsorship monies, prizes and spectators.

World of Tanks & E-Sports

This year at WCG 2012, World of Tanks will be featured at the Grand Finals which is taking place at Kunshan International Exposition & Convention Center in Kunshan, China, from 29 November to 02 December.

World of Tanks Tournaments

Currently, World of Tanks has 4 types of tournaments ongoing: Challenges, Leagues, Skirmishes and Clan Tournaments. Challenges are monthly tournaments based on historical events that occurred during that month. Leagues are league style tournaments that span a duration of 3 months and is by far, the longest and largest tournament that World of Tanks has. Skirmishes are weekly tournaments designed with the aim of injecting casual fun and lastly Clan Tournaments involve members of the same clan competing in quarterly clan tournaments.

We’ll be bringing you more news regarding World of Tanks and our role in E-sports so keep your eyes peeled on this space for more upcoming updates!